Author Archives: ghw

ralph nader 2004

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Today, Ralph Nader will announce his candidacy for the presidency in the 2004 election, saying, as he did in 2000, that the Democrats and the Republicans are not very different. (A backlash has already begun.)

Really? Look at the positions of the two leading Democratic candidates for president, Kerry and Edwards, available via the Washington Post or on the “issues” pages at the Kerry and Edwards homepages. Compare to the information found on the Bush 2004 website .

Does Nader actually believe that there will be little change in the direction the nation, and the world, takes if Kerry or Edwards unseats Bush?

It’s time to state the obvious. Nader will not win. The best he can do is take votes away from the Democratic candidate and possibly ensure another Bush victory. No one who is planning on voting for Bush is going to be drawn away by a Nader candidacy; look at where he stands on the issues.

This election is not about the “duopoly” of the two-party system. The presidential election is the worst place to take that issue on. Put a third-party candidate in the White House, where s/he will have no party allies in the legislative branch and will be destined to fail, and you will convince the vast majority of Americans that a third party is the last thing this country needs.

You will cement the two-party system, rather than undermine it.

Rather than start with a third-party president, work to put third-party candidates on your city council, in the mayor’s office, in the state legislature, in the governor’s office, in the U.S. Senate, and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Develop a track record of success at making a difference. With that kind of record, a third (or fourth or fifth) party is likely to build the kind of momentum and ethos to be taken seriously and to be effective.

finally, the punk rockers are taking acid

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I’ve just learned that not only does Kansas City have an annual Mardi Gras parade, however modest, but at this year’s shindig the neopsychedelic experimental noise pop band the Flaming Lips will be given a key to the city. What’s the connection? I’m not sure. The Lips are from Oklahoma City, which, like KC, is in the midwest. Beyond that, though, I’m stumped. L’s pronouncement: “I think you just file this under news of the weird.”

how good are you with math and middle english?

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How many tales does the “General Prologue” to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell us are going to be told on the pilgrimage to and from Canterbury? The narrator provides the following information:

19: Bifil that in that seson on a day,
20: In southwerk at the tabard as I lay
21: Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
22: To caunterbury with ful devout corage,
23: At nyght was come into that hostelrye
24: Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,
25: Of sondry folk…

The host proposes a contest for the pilgrims:

791: That ech of yow, to shorte with oure weye,
792: In this viage shal telle tales tweye
793: To caunterbury-ward, I mene it so,
794: And homward he shal tellen othere two,

Would anyone consider 116 to be the right answer?

imagine it’s 1945…

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…and you’re reading this press release. How would you respond?

Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Mixed-Race ‘Marriage’

Those who oppose laws permitting mixed-race ‘marriage’ outnumber supporters by a two-to-one margin.

“We need to strengthen marriage.” According to the National Annenberg Election Survey, that sentiment, which was expressed at a rally last Sunday in Boston to support traditional marriage, is one held by an overwhelming majority of Americans.

Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, said the support for race-pure marriage knows no cultural or social boundaries, and includes African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Jews, Evangelicals, Catholics and people of no particular faith.

“This is what the Vatican calls ‘the common currency of humanity,’ ” he said.

Daniels is pleased with the survey overall, despite what he says was a “deliberate bias” in the questioning that was designed to reflect poorly on traditional marriage.

“Whenever you ask people if they oppose something, you lower the numbers,” Daniels said. “If you ask them, ‘Do you support marriage as (being between) a man and a woman if the same race?’ you get much higher numbers.”

Support for traditional marriage was bolstered by those who are angered by recent court decisions, such as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s order to give mixed-race couple access to the commonwealth’s marriage law, according to Glenn T. Stanton, senior analyst for marriage and sexuality at Focus on the Family.

“The tremendous judicial overreach that we’re seeing in . . . Massachusetts . . . is not driving it, but it’s helping it ó and its helping with the outrage.”

The numbers were released as lawmakers in Massachusetts prepare to debate the definition of marriage. In fact, the Massachusetts Legislature convened today to debate a state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman of the same race.

Ray McNulty, a spokesman for the Coalition for Marriage ó of which Focus on the Family is a part ó said the poll numbers will help the cause.

“We’ve circulated the Annenberg numbers to all the legislators here in the statehouse,” McNulty said. “They’re very powerful.”

The survey found that 60 percent oppose mixed-race marriage laws in their state. Meanwhile, 49 percent of Americans oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment, while 42 percent favor its passage.

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sunday afternoon links

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